1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information handling systems and more particularly to an embedded managed system services repository.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
With the proliferation of information handling systems, especially within large scale information handling system installations, an important issue relates to the service and support of the large scale information handling system installations (i.e., installations in which more than a few information handling systems are supported by a single entity. The entity that services and supports such an installation is often referred to as a managed service provider. Managed services, or life-cycle services, generally include deployment services and asset services. More specifically, managed services include some or all of asset deployment and installation services, asset management services (including, e.g., both asset tracking and asset moving services), asset maintenance services and asset retirement services.
A managed service provider provides a customer with an ability to procure, deploy, support and manage information handling system technologies across the life cycle of the information handling systems. Issues relating to managed services include information management and asset utilization while providing quality service delivery and a favorable customer experience.
Known managed service providers can be generally divided into two categories: internally staffed managed service providers and out-sourced managed service providers. Internally staffed managed service providers generally have a number of employees with the specific job description of providing service to a particular client. Out-sourced managed service providers generally use third party service providers to provide service to a particular client of the service provider.
One issue of managed services relates to systems management. Often installing and configuring software used to perform systems management, especially on server type information handling systems, is a complex and complicated process just to be able to manage hardware within the information handling system. For example, referring to FIG. 1, labeled Prior Art, a block diagram of a system for performing the process of installing and configuring the software used to perform system management includes installing an operating system (OS), installing and configuring all corresponding drivers (e.g., the network stack), and installing and configuring the systems management software (e.g., agents, Dynamic link library files (DLLs), web server software, and a graphical user interface (GUI) framework). Each of these components can include their own set of challenges to install and configured. If the components are not fully installed and configured then it is likely possible that the system will not be fully managed or deployable.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a means of simplifying the process of installing and configuring the software used to perform systems management.